In the noise, the important figures were lost: while the overall population is set to increase by 7.3%, the population of people of pensionable age will increase almost twice as fast.
The truth too unpalatable for politicians like Farage to lay out is that if you cannot get a GP appointment, the likelihood is that it isn’t an immigrant – who is on average younger and healthier than you – ahead in the queue, but one of the growing number of older people.
Age UK estimates 2 million elderly people are already without the social care support needed to complete daily tasks like getting out of bed, washing and getting dressed.
Eurostat data released this week shows a bright red population catastrophe unfurling across the continent if immigration were to be reduced to ‘net zero’ as Farage campaigns to achieve.
Alongside the Eurostat predictions, there was uproar in January when the ONS published projections showing the UK population increasing by nearly 5 million over the next 10 years, fuelled by immigration.
